1883-1884.] 273 



interest taken in the subject by Mr. Jamieson, that this flora 

 may again become accessible. It seems to be by far the most 

 beautiful and best preserved of any included in the basalts, 

 either in Greenland or elsewhere, and to be identical with the 

 Ballypalady flora, except that it is far richer in leafy trees.* 



The principal Lignites are above the Bauxites and rest upon 

 them. The thickest beds vary from 2 to 5 feet in depth, and 

 occur at Ballintoy on the coast, considerably to the west of 

 Glenarm. They are very compact, but split readily into laminae, 

 on the surface of which the leaves, fragmentary and much 

 macerated before being imbedded, are faintly defined by their 

 more glistening surfaces. The greater part belong to a peculiar 

 triple nerved leaf, named M^CHntockia LyelJi by Heer, and 

 abundant in some of the Greenland shales. The lignite is full 

 of compressed wood, with well defined structure, and belonging 

 in some cases to trunks of considerable girth. Portlock mentions 

 the occurrence of amber in lignites in the face of Craignastroke, 

 in Ballynascreen parish. Lignites and bituminous woods im- 

 bedded in a loamy earth are met with at very many other places 

 in the basaltic area ; but our member Mr. Gray has treated this 

 subject so exhaustively in our Tenth Annual Report, 1873, 

 (p. 28), that it is superfluous to add anything further here. 



The Iron ores have been described on various occasions, 

 particularly by Messrs. Tate and Holden, (Quart. Journ. Geol. 

 Soc, vol. xxvi., p. 151, 1869), and they are doubtless very 

 familiar to most of the members of this Club. They are met 

 with over a very large tract of the basaltic area, from the north 

 coast to at least Belfast Lough. Our member Mr. Gray observes 

 a regular sequence in the ores : — 



1 lithomarge, 3 bole, 



2 ochre, 4 pisolitic iron. 



Ochres or boles are very irregularly distributed among the 

 columnar basalts, and are in very many instances old soils or 

 vegetable mould produced by the decomposition of basalt sur- 



* These hopes have since been realised, and if permitted to do so, I shall have 

 pleasure in presenting the Club with an account of the results of the exploration. 



